


Unknown

by Blackghost7



Category: NCIS
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-11
Updated: 2015-12-11
Packaged: 2018-05-06 04:39:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5403314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blackghost7/pseuds/Blackghost7
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"No. Some things are better left unknown and unsaid."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unknown

No one mentions anything about it, that's the thing that puzzles Ellie the most. She saw it only after a few months, admittedly slow, but then… no one ever mentions anything about it. And that's what makes her hesitant to talk about it, or even think about it. At NSA, everyone talked about everything they could, and since cases or an analysis weren't prudent subjects for conversation, the personal lives of colleagues were pretty much everything they could relatively freely discuss. Granted, she was usually the last one to hear about office gossip, but the nature of their work dictated that there was nothing much else to talk about.

NCIS is different, she's known that from the beginning. They have a reputation. They're cowboys, far less regulated than the other agencies, and especially the MCRT has a habit of breaking rules and flaunting defiance in the face of authority, and when Gibbs offers her a place on precisely that team, Jake is very concerned. But Ellie loves a challenge, and she can't resist. 

She's barely a day in when she realizes that it's a good fit for her, that she has this streak of wanting to do things, wanting to accomplish things that NSA would never let her attempt. 

And then, there's the team.

That Abby is unusual is blatantly obvious, a blind person could see it. The goth twirls around her domain, is glaringly inappropriate with Gibbs, but she gets scientifically viable results in a way Ellie has never seen before. 

Ducky seems like a sweet, old man, but is relentless in his search for answers, and beneath his stories, she finds an endless font of knowledge and tenacity that she has never experienced before. The fact that he speaks to his 'guests' makes her uncomfortable at first, but when she sees Palmer smile indulgently, she tries to take her cues from him, and gets used to it quite easily and quickly. 

Palmer is another puzzle. Seemingly awkward and stumbling, he's always there in the background, seeing and hearing everything that's important, and supporting the others in any way he can. She wonders if Ducky even realizes that these days, he's not so much speaking to his guests, but to Palmer. And Jimmy is listening. Despite the glares and disparaging comments, the team listens to Palmer, sees him as one of their own, and even when his findings and theories are dismissed with a joke, they listen and act on them.

Then there's McGee. Sweet, lovable Timothy McGee, who takes Gibbs' glares and Tony's ribbing and wears them almost like a badge of honor. Ellie's heard stories, about how he used to be years ago, but she can't see evidence of those in the confident and sarcastic man that now helps her learn her job. He hacks into anything as if it's nothing, as if there's no problem with him doing that, and in the evenings he goes home and plays games and loves his girlfriend even though she knows more than he does, and he doesn't even seem to resent Delilah for it. That rankles Ellie, because she hates that she and Jake have been on rocky ground ever since they couldn't discuss every detail of every day with each other any more.

The Director is maybe even more of a puzzle. Vance loves his rules and regulations, and makes every team follow them, except when it comes to the MCRT. When other agencies come to complain, Vance always comes up with a valid reason why things had been done as they were done. He and Gibbs don't have the best of relationships, but there is a grudging respect between the two of them that makes Ellie almost uncomfortable, and she has spent some nights wondering what could have caused the cease fire between them. 

Gibbs… Well, she can't really say much about him. The man is a mystery. He's rough and gruff and will bite your head off at the slightest thing that annoys him, and he's annoyed a lot. But then there are these moments, little moments when he shows he's human and he's kind and gentle and supportive. Ellie thinks those are kind of scary, actually, but when she talks to Jake about it, he doesn't understand. When she tells him about Gibbs' treatment of Tony, about the head slaps and the scathing remarks, the sarcasm and the seeming dismissal of Tony's status on the team, Jake loudly exclaims that if he were Tony, he would have left a long time ago.

But Tony hasn't.

Where Gibbs is a mystery, Tony is a conundrum. When she had lasted a week on Gibbs' team, people couldn't stop themselves from telling her about the poser that was Anthony DiNozzo. He plays the jock on the job, the flirt and the simple cop, but meanwhile he comes up with the most resolutions, solves the most cases, whether it's by clues or by interrogation. Tony in Interrogation is a wonder to watch and listen to, something Ellie greatly admires and knows she could never do herself. She catches the smiles Gibbs gives when he watches Tony from Observation, and wonders about them, until she's seen suspect after suspect crack under Tony's special brand of talking. She wonders about the poser comment, until she sees Tony at work, focused on the case and all masks stripped, and she sees McGee grin and Gibbs quirk his lips, and she knows there is more to the man than meets the eye.

Ellie's pretty good with computers, and it doesn't take her long to hack into her colleagues' personal records. She knows it's wrong, but she just can't resist, analyst and all. She's astounded but still not really surprised by the commendations and promotion offers she finds in Tony's. She tells Jake about them. He's mostly just worried.

"Are you going to get into trouble for this?"

"Jake! You know better than that! I can hide my traces!"

"That's not really the point, Ellie."

"Then what is?"

"You're checking up on your colleagues, stuff they probably don't want you to know. What if you let something slip?"

"Jake…"

"No, Ellie Belly! You can think you're being so secretive, but…"

Ellie stares at him incredulously.

"You really think they would notice, Jake?"

"It's NCIS, Ellie."

And Ellie stares at him in wonder in the dark, thinking that maybe everyone thought more of NCIS than she had ever known.

It's a couple of days later, when Gibbs sends Ellie and McGee down to the garage to gas the truck before going out to a crime scene while he and Tony get the latest reports - while Tony gets the latest reports and Gibbs drinks the last of his cold coffee, he means - when McGee actually flips the emergency switch and faces her. She eyes him curiously.

"McGee?"

"Don't peak into Tony's records, Bishop. Ever."

She breathes deeply, trying to calm herself, her mind racing.

"I…"

"Don't deny it, Bishop."

"Did you look at them?"

"No. Some things are better left unknown and unsaid."

McGee stares at her to get his point across, and from the stories and her research, she gets how much of this stare was taught to him by Tony, and maybe even by Gibbs.

"I won't, McGee."

"Good."

McGee nods and starts the elevator again. It's only when they're in the truck and waiting for Gibbs and Tony to drive up in the Charger that she dares speak again.

"McGee?"

"Unknown and unsaid, Bishop. Don't go there."

She shuts down and analyzes it in her mind. That evening she speaks to Jake about it, and he laughs.

"Gibbs and DiNozzo?! From what you've told me?? You've been away from NSA too long, Ellie."

But somehow, Ellie can't help but feel that Jake is wrong, and she is right.

There is nothing obvious about it, unless you take the times Tony's staying when Gibbs releases the team into account, or the times they glance at each other with a clear message on those occasions Tony actually does leave with them. Or the way Tony glances at his watch and leaves early when they're out for team drink, and the smirks the others throw at each other after Tony's gone. But still, no one mentions anything about it. But Ellie's no fool, and she can analyze, and she's trying to piece it together.

It's a couple of months later and they're in a hostage situation. When the bullets start flying, Gibbs and Tony first make sure their team is okay, then focus on each other and nearly get themselves killed while both are trying to protect each other. Ellie would have smiled if it weren't so hurtful and sad to watch. That evening, everyone fine, they're all settled on Gibbs' deck in the backyard, steaks, burgers and beers swirling in their bellies, when Ellie can't hold her tongue any longer.

"So… why didn't you want me to know?"

While the others gasp in a breath, surprisingly, it's Gibbs who answers.

"Know what, Bishop?" 

"That the two of you are… together?"

Tony smiles, then softly glares at her.

"We don't talk about that, Bishop. Everyone knows that. No one mentions it."

But even as Gibbs and Tony try to maintain their glares, McGee, Abby, Ducky and Palmer smile at her. 

"Welcome to the team, Ellie."

And somehow, McGee's soft words really make her feel at home.


End file.
